


Snapshots Through Time

by PurpleWombat14481



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-26
Updated: 2015-01-26
Packaged: 2018-03-09 03:50:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3235235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleWombat14481/pseuds/PurpleWombat14481
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hongbin and Jaehwan were princes. Taekwoon, Ravi, and Hakyeon were knights. Sanghyuk was a nobleman. But those titles don't always last. Especially not through years of watching the Earth go on while you stay still. Of watching the one you love live and die over and over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Neo - The First Life

“Taekwoon?” Hakyeon asked from where he was curled into his lover’s side, head pillowed on his chest. The larger man had one arm wrapped protectively around Hakyeon. Taekwoon grunted in reply, a sound that Hakyeon knew meant ‘what?’ “Do we need to fight tomorrow?”

“We do.” Taekwoon replied, almost immediately. Hakyeon groaned in response.

“Why? Why can’t we just run away? We were sent to make sure prince Hongbin is killed. For no reason other than the fact that he loves another man and our king cannot handle that. I don’t feel right going against him in battle.” The thought of having to kill someone just because their king disagreed with his choices bothered Hakyeon. He knew it bothered Taekwoon too. But as knights and nobles, they didn’t really have a choice but to go where their king ordered them to. To fight the battles they were ordered to fight. Running would take away all of that, but...

“If we ran right now, we would be hunted down and killed.” And Hakyeon knew that Taekwoon had a point. If they disappeared the night before a battle they would be considered enemies of the kingdom, because they had abandoned the guard. But at least they would die together if they were hunted down. Hakyeon thought that was better that only one of them dying.

“We could die in the battle. At least if we were hunted down we wouldn’t have the risk of one of us dying and the other having to move on. Because I couldn’t move on.”

“We are not going to die.” Taekwoon’s arm tightened slightly around Hakyeon, as if trying to convince himself that Hakyeon was not going anywhere.

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“I can hope.” Taekwoon shifted a bit while keeping his arm around Hakyeon, the other hand moving to remove a ring off of his pointer finger. To Hakyeon’s confusion, Taekwoon grabbed his left arm and placed the ring on his ring finger, before turning onto his side and wrapping both of his arms around the smaller man.

“What is this for?” Hakyeon felt kind of tingly, in a happy way. He didn’t know what to make of Taekwoon’s actions but he was sure it was something good.

“I promise you, after the battle we will run away.” His eyes and his arms tight around Hakyeon said everything that Hakyeon knew he wouldn’t. Taekwoon was promising him that they’d make it out alive, that they would build a life together in some other kingdom where they wouldn’t have to hide that they were in love. They would no longer have to fight for a king who hated what they were. Taekwoon was willing to give up his status as a knight and a noble just to be with Hakyeon. Hakyeon teared up.

“I love you.” He said, before rolling both of them over so that he was on top of Taekwoon to reach his lips. Taekwoon didn’t say it back, not out loud. But Hakyeon hadn’t expected him to. He said it in the way he kissed him back, the way his hands moved reverently over Hakyeon’s body, the way he held Hakyeon tightly as they drifted off to sleep. 

But Hakyeon could have sworn he heard Taekwoon’s soft voice mutter “I love you more than you know” when he was drifting into unconsciousness.


	2. Rabin - The First Life

It should have been simple: go, fight the invading army, come home safe. No one expected that the invaders would be as strong as they were, strong enough to be a threat to the King’s knights. And Ravi was scared. Scared because people were dropping on both sides of the battle and he’d lost sight of Hongbin. Hongbin, his leader, his prince, his lover, his everything. 

The all too familiar sound of metal against metal came from directly behind him. Ravi turned quickly to see Hongbin fighting off a man taller and more muscular than either of them. He quickly joined the action, fighting at Hongbin’s side just like he had always done and had always pledged to do, even if he hadn’t been able to become a full-fledged knight. Both of them blocked the blows coming from the enemy, but the larger man seemed to only be aiming for Hongbin. Hongbin was the key player in the battle, he was in charge, the piece that needed to be taken down. Ravi and anyone else was just an afterthought. They were too busy focusing on the taller man in front of them that neither noticed the rest of the battle going on.

A pained gurgle sounded from Hongbin, and Ravi looked over quick enough to see the tip of a sword poking through a gap in his armor, quickly disappearing as an enemy knight, smaller than most of the others, withdrew his sword and quickly dashed away. Ravi felt cold. No. Not Hongbin. He couldn’t die. He threw his own sword down to his feet to attend to his love, trying to stop the bleeding through the armor, forgetting about the large man they had been fighting moments before. This wasn’t how Hongbin was supposed to die. Him, maybe, he was just a commoner who was lucky enough to become a knight, but Hongbin was destined to rule and be a great king. Ravi couldn’t think. Could barely move. All he could really do was watch helplessly as his light fell to his knees and bled. Oh, god, there was so much blood. And no one else seemed to have noticed, all of the other knights too busy fighting their own battles. Ravi could do nothing. Could only watch was the life faded from Hongbin’s eyes as he collapsed to the ground, dead. 

And then he felt the sharp pain of a sword running through his body and he could only hope that he’d be able to find Hongbin in the afterlife as he fell next to him. His last thought was that it was ironic that they had been taken down by another man instead of the dragons and other beasts they had fought together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was dark. The only things Ravi could hear were the sounds of nature and what sounded like sobs coming from somewhere nearby. That… didn’t seem right. Why would someone be crying in the afterlife? He looked around and noticed that he was still on the battlefield. He was, alive? But the sword had gone right through him, there had been no way for him to have been saved. Unless, somehow, he had been brought back. And if he had been brought back then---

He looked next to him and saw Hongbin. Unmoving, cold. Dead. And he wished that he was dead as well. But he clearly wasn’t. For some reason he was alive. He could do nothing about it. All Ravi wanted to do was stay with Hongbin’s body until he died of starvation, but he felt that that would be useless. He didn’t know why, but there was a feeling that no matter what he did, he would survive. No matter how he died. He couldn’t go back to his king, not with Hongbin dead, not with it thought that he was also dead. It wouldn’t be the same anyway. No more sneaking into Hongbin’s quarters after dark to huddle together next to the fire. No more sneaking out of the castle to wander in the woods and get up to some less than decent things. No more kissing Hongbin, loving Hongbin, being loved back. The memories would be too painful. Everything in the castle and surrounding areas would scream Hongbin and he would go crazy.

He was numb. He knew he should be sad, knew he would spend weeks crying after he got over the shock. But for the moment he felt detached. Like it was all a bad dream and he would wake up soon, wrapped in Hongbin’s arms.

Instead, he decided to find the sound of the sobbing. He sat up to get a better look at his surroundings. It was a full moon and his eyes had adjusted enough for him to see. There was a man crouched over another body about a hundred feet away. The man was clearly the one sobbing. Carefully, Ravi stood up, wobbly on his feet. There was dried blood all over him, and he quickly shed the metal armor and chainmail, he wouldn’t need it anymore, until he was left standing in just his soft underclothes. There was blood all over these too, but at least it was mostly his own, concentrated around the stab wound in his chest. Or, where the stab wound would have been. There was not even a scar on his skin, the only indication of where it had been were the cuts in his shirt. 

Ravi made his way over to the other man, stopping a few feet from him and calling out. “Are you okay?” The man’s head shot up, looking at him with red eyes, tears streaming down his face. From this close, Ravi could see that the crying man was also in blood soaked underclothes. They were in the color of the men he had been fighting earlier that day. Ravi wasn’t concerned though, most people that were drafted into fighting didn’t want to be there. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who had been brought back from death with no explanation. “My name’s Ravi.”

“Hakyeon.” The man sniffled, making no effort to stop crying. He was holding the hand of the man lying dead in front of him. “This is… was… Taekwoon.” And the crying came harder. The numbness was dulling, and Ravi could feel his own despair quickly approaching. He had to get away from here, away from the body of his most important person. 

“Let’s get out of here. Both armies will be back to collect their dead in the morning, we can’t be here then.” He needed to get away before he collapsed in the middle of a sea of bodies. 

“I can’t leave him.” 

“You have to. We can’t be here when they come back, we’re supposed to be dead too.” Hakyeon nodded hesitantly at that. He leaned down to kiss the cold lips of the man in front of him before standing up. “I know a place nearby where we can hide out. Grieve.” That was true, there was a small cabin in the woods close by. It was a place that he had frequently gone to with Hongbin when they needed to get away from life. And that was exactly what he was doing again, running. Only this time, it was with with a stranger and he was running from death. 

They practically ran to the cabin. They didn’t need to, there was no one around, no one would be around until morning, but the sooner they arrived the sooner Ravi would be able to give in to his grief, be able to break down and cry. Maybe he and this stranger would be able to get over his together and move on. Not that Ravi felt like he would ever be able to move on from Hongbin. Hongbin was the one person who he had ever felt completely comfortable around. The only person who had known everything about him. The only person who could get him to do anything he didn’t entirely want to. And it wasn’t because Hongbin had power over him as the crown prince, but because Ravi had been totally in love with him. And Hongbin had loved him back. And he would never be able to hear those words coming from Hongbin’s mouth ever again.

They entered the cabin just as Ravi broke down.


End file.
